Concord family files lawsuit in crash that killed father, daughter

CONCORD -- A teenager who ran over and killed a father and his daughter while they were bike riding on Treat Boulevard two years ago was sued Friday, along with his parents.

David Rosen, 19, along with his mother and father, Kathleen and Michael Rosen, were sued for negligence and wrongful death, among others, in the death of Solaiman Nuri, 41, and his 9-year-old daughter Hadees.

Both were killed April 7, 2012, as they rode their bikes on the sidewalk eastbound along Treat Boulevard near Oak Grove Road, just a few minutes from their home. Another daughter, 12-year-old Hannah, suffered minor injuries.

The Rosens are being sued by Nuri's widow, Stoorai Nuri, and Hannah Nuri.

According to authorities, David Rosen, then 17, was driving a 2002 Cadillac Escalade westbound on Treat Boulevard at 71 mph, well over the posted 45 mph limit. Uninsured at the time, David Rosen veered in and out of traffic before he made an unsafe lane change, authorities said, then careened onto the sidewalk, sheared off a fire hydrant and struck the Nuri family before crashing into a building.

The Nuri family's attorney, Michael Cardoza, said David Rosen's reckless driving habits had been documented in the past, with neighbors approaching his parents on several occasions to complain about how he drove his father's Escalade.

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"A car of that size obviously has potential to inflict a lot of damage, and to entrust it to someone who had no parameters, no control, who was allowed to do what he wanted when he wanted, it's just unforgivable," Cardoza said.

"David Rosen certainly is a young man that had a lot of monetary means," Cardoza added. "So we certainly hope to get a monetary apology from him for his absolutely gross negligence in taking the lives of two people and absolutely and catastrophically destroying the lives of two others."

Peter Coleridge, an attorney for the Rosen family, did not immediate reply to a request for comment. But reached at home, Michael Rosen said that his son remains haunted by the accident.

"My son still hears the sound of the people being hit," he said, adding that David sees a therapist once a week. "Even though it's been a year and a half, he's reliving the accident every day."

In October 2012, David Rosen was sentenced to the maximum term of more than seven years in confinement. But because he was convicted as a minor of two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter, state law requires him to be released at 21, meaning he will only serve three of the seven years. David Rosen also admitted to a misdemeanor count of reckless driving that caused injuries to Hannah.

Prosecutors dropped unrelated misdemeanor charges stemming from an earlier arrest in Walnut Creek for possessing alcoholic beverages and carrying a switchblade knife, according to David Rosen's plea agreement.